For The Innocent
by sawchy
Summary: The Earth-Romulan War is raging on and thousands of innocent are caught in the crossfire. Enterprise is sent on a special mission that could end the war and bring all the killing on both sides to an end.
1. Chapter 1

_If there must be trouble let it be in my day, so that my child may have peace._

_-Thomas Paine_

_**Chapter One**_

_**January 26th, 2159**_

Captain Jonathon Archer awoke with a start and gazed around his dimly lit quarters with a feeling of fear tugging at his throat and stomach. He gazed from one shadow to another then back into the darkness. He felt his heart finally begin to slow its rapid pace and he felt the cold wetness across his chest and down his arms for the first time since he awoke. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right wrist and immediately regretted it. Jon hated the feeling of sweat on his bare skin, it had been something that drove him nuts for years.

He sat up slowly and looked over at his digital clock, the numbers read out 0219 hours. Jon rolled his eyes and he quickly laid back down in his bunk and pulled the damp sheets back up around his face. He tried to ignore the feeling and get back to sleep but he just couldn't forget the wet coldness that was being pressed up against his face.

Jon tried to clear his mind and not think about anything; it wasn't working very well. The sound of the warp engines hummed through the grav-plating and he felt himself becoming more wide-awake. His adrenaline had pumped too much during that nightmare; he could still feel the spot where his heart was thundering against his rib cage.

"T'pol to Captain Archer," chirped his internal COM next to his bed.

Archer felt himself fully awake at the voice of his first officer; he rolled over and tapped the ON button to the light next to his bed. He then pressed the COM and it beeped at his touch, "Archer," he stated.

"Captain, were intercepting a distress call from a nearby system. The signal's carrier wave is the same kind commonly used by human freighters. Should we alter course to investigate?"

Archer felt himself frown at the thought of another freighter in trouble, to many freighters had been destroyed in the past three years, ever since the beginning of the Earth-Romulan war. Archer continued frowning as he asked more questions of T'pol, "did the distress call have any information about what might be the problem?"

T'pols voice replied almost instantly in the matter of fact tone that she usually used, "Negative. It was automated."

Archer looked towards his window as he considered what to do. Stars flickered past the window and gave long streaks of light out from behind them as Enterprise traveled past the stars at warp three. He considered the responsibility of the mission they were on, then considered the weight of leaving a crew of a freighter to die in the cold vacuum of space. He had a mission and it could help Earth with this war greatly. But the crew of the freighter are humans, and human civilians at that. Innocent people were what this war was all about, to defend the innocent people of Earth and its colonies.

Archer looked away from his window and back at the COM on his nightstand, "plot a course. Maximum warp."

* * *

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed reached up and rubbed his eyes again as he rode upward in the lift. His eyes felt heavy and like they wanted to close. He had been woken up ten minutes ago by commander T'pol saying that they might be heading for some action soon. He had gotten dressed and tried to make himself look officer worthy, but it hadn't worked very well. His hair still looked tossed and crushed from his sleeping despite his attempts with a comb to make it look decent. Malcolm still had a terrible case of bed head and he felt more then a little annoyed with his hair. It wasn't right to be seen like this and Malcolm knew it. An officer was supposed to be respected, not laughed at cause his hair was messy.

He shook his head slightly but smiled at the thought of possibly encountering Romulan ships in the next bit. It had been almost two weeks since they had last seen some action. To be honest, Malcolm was relieved to have a bit of rest from the constant fighting and killing of this war.

Now the night watch had received a distress call from a civilian freighter in a nearby system they were passing. Most times any human ship gave a distress call these days, it was because a Romulan ship was nearby or attacking them. Civilian freighters couldn't fight the warships so they usually tried to outrun them, most freighters would get run down and destroyed in less then twenty minutes.

Starfleet ships on the other hand, could usually hold there own in a fight against the Romulans. The fight would usually be slightly tilted towards the Romulans because they were ahead of Starfleet by several decades. Most Romulan technology was more advanced then anything humans had designed and build yet.

The lift doors opened interrupting Malcolm's thoughts and revealing the night watch as they manned their stations and carried out their duties. The only bridge officer that wasn't usually part of the night watch was the executive officer who sat in Captain Archer's chair.

Her slim form made the chair look much to big for her, her small body was almost dwarfed by the large black chair. T'pols hair was cut short and precise like all the Vulcan's that Malcolm had met over the years. She wore her usual casual uniform that still had a professional look to it. It was colored blue and made up of two pieces, a top that covered her entire upper body and arms. The second was pants that were baggy yet still professional looking.

She turned in the chair towards him as he walked onto the bridge; he gave her a nod and walked over to his station. He relieved the young female ensign manning the tactical station and he began to check the long-range sensors. They were still too far from the system to get any sensor scans of it yet.

Malcolm quickly began to recalibrate the targeting sensors of the forward phase cannons. If they came out of warp and were attacked, then the phase cannons would need to be ready to fire. The sensors briefly deactivated while the ship's computer quickly fixed and aligned the complex combat sensors. The sensors lit back up and displayed what they detected outside of the ship, nothing scrolled across the monitor.

Reed quickly repeated the process for the rear phase cannons, then for the forward and aft torpedo launchers. Then he ran several scans on the hull plating and was convinced that the ships hull plating could be polarized in less then five seconds of pressing the activation button. He smiled at how well the ship was working despite the constant running and gunning they had been doing for months now. Trip had done his job well; Enterprise could probably go up and fight against three Romulan warships in the good state that she was in.

The lift door slid open and Captain Archer stepped off the turbo lift, he also looked as if he had been woken up while he was asleep. His eyes looked heavy and his hair looked like it had been quickly washed with water. His uniform looked wrinkled in several spots, like it had just gotten back from the ship's quartermaster and hadn't been folded for very long. Archer walked down from the lift and around the railing towards his chair, "report," he said while T'pol got up and headed for her own station.

She took her seat at the science station before speaking, "were just entering long range sensor range now. We should be arriving at the coordinates shortly," she said while pressing several controls on her console. She eyed the information it displayed curiously then continued to press the buttons.

Reed looked from his Captain then to the view screen, which showed the space in front of the Enterprise as it sped towards the aid of the human freighter. Reed looked down at his console and made sure the tactical alert button was available to be pressed.

Archer looked over at his Vulcan science officer and asked, "how long till we arrive at the coordinates?"

She looked from then down at her console, then back up at him. "At our current speed, we will arrive in twenty two minutes and ten seconds."

Archer shook his head at hearing this, "we need to get there faster," he said to no one in particular as he pressed the COM on his chair. "Archer to Tucker."

* * *

"Archer to Tucker," rang out the Captains voice through the engine room COM four decks below the bridge. Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III looked around the room confused for a second; the voice had been slightly distorted by the loud thumping of the warp reactor. He quickly moved to the COM on the wall and tapped the button.

"Tucker here Cap'n," he said in his southern drawl.

"I need you to push those engines a little bit harder," said Archer to his friend in an apologetic tone.

Trip frowned at hearing the order, "the reactor's already running at one hundred and ten percent. I don't know how much more I can get out of it."

"Do what you can, we need to get there as soon as possible."

"I'll do my best, Tucker out," he said before pressing the activation button on the COM again. The COM squeaked slightly as he turned it off. Trip turned and walked over to the reactor behind him, he quickly climbed the ladder that led to the reactors control panel and looked at the monitors that were displayed across it.

He watched the formulas and numbers that displayed across it then frowned at the idea of pushing it any harder. Trip side stepped over to the right and looked down the length of the reactor and yelled down to one of the young lieutenants manning several stations at the far end of the engine room. "Watch the coolant mix ratios and keep an eye on the warp field, we don't need that coming apart."

One of the lieutenants nodded and Trip sidestepped back over to the monitors. He tapped several buttons then moved to the three large controls in the center of the console. He took one and pushed it forward slightly, then he moved to the next and pushed it forward too. He took the third and pushed it forward as well, the reactor began to hum and thump as it converted matter into antimatter then distributed it back towards the two nacelles at the rear of the vessel creating the warp field around the vessel.

Trip looked at the monitor and watched the reactor get pushed up to warp five point two one. The monitors displayed several warnings and flashed red, several screens showed countdowns till the reactor would overload. Trip sighed at seeing all the warnings and countdowns. He tapped a COM on the reactors control panel and spoke, "Tucker to the bridge."

The COM was silent for a moment and Tucker continued to watch the monitors as he waited for a reply. "Go ahead Trip," said Archers voice.

"I got you up to warp five point two one, but we can't hold this speed for very long. The reactor is already showing me warning lights."

"Alright, notify us if any of those warnings become a problem. We should be arriving in less then ten minutes, so keep those engines going until then," ordered Archer over the COM.

"We'll do captain."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

_**January 26th, 2159**_

Archer ran a hand through his still damp hair and breathed out loudly as Enterprise sped towards the injured freighter. He didn't like the situation that he was taking Enterprise and its crew into. Anything could be lying in wait for them at the coordinates the freighter provided. Archer frowned at the thought of having to deal with more Romulan ships, they hadn't met any Romulans in almost two weeks. Jon was becoming tired of dealing with the constant fighting in this war, no matter what they did, the Romulans always fought them off. The well-made plans of Starfleet would fall apart in the real world and the battles would go poorly for both sides. This war was becoming something that neither side could win. Both sides would probably just destroy each other in the end.

Archer shrugged that dreadful thought off and looked towards Malcolm who was manning the tactical station like always. "Tactical alert," he ordered and Malcolm quickly activated the controls and buttons that got the ship ready for battle. Jon looked over towards T'pol who was manning the science station, "have you detected the freighter yet?"

She looked up from her console and spoke in a calm and controlled tone that all Vulcan's seemed to have. "I've detected a human transponder signal as well as the freighter at the coordinates the automated distress beacon gave us. It's at barring zero zero one. "

Archer nodded, taking in the information before speaking again, "any life signs?"

She looked at him with the cool look of a Vulcan, but to Archer he could recognize the disappointed look in her face and features. "I'm detecting no life signs at this distance, but that may change as we get closer."

Archer looked towards the view screen and nodded, he knew it was too late for whoever was on the freighter. Whatever had happened to them had already happened and no one would be alive on the freighter to save. Archer felt a twinge of regret for more lives that had been lost. Too many human lives had already been lost; too many people had died from this war,to manypeople over the recent years. To many had died lately.

"We're approaching the coordinates of the freighters signal," stated Ensign Travis Mayweather from the helm. He punched several buttons and theship gave a slight vibration as it dropped from maximum warp into regular space. He pressed several buttons which activated the impulse engines and thrusters.

Archer looked over at T'pol, she shook her head then began to speak loudly so the entire bridge could hear. "Still no life signs detected. However, I am detecting signs of battle and amassive amount of debris ahead. It appears the freighters hull has taken a largeamount of damage."

"Let's see it," ordered Archer. Ensign Hoshi Sato at the COM station pressed a button on her console and the view screens image shifted to the badly torn image of a what used to be a J class Freighter. Debris spiraled and spun in wild arcs away from the main hulk of what used to be a human vessel. The ship's hull had several large holes that ran right through thesolid steelto the other side and you could see the space protruding from thefar side of the large hole. Several other sections were scorched open and the insides of the vessel could clearly be seen. Bodies were scattered in amongst the hundreds of pieces of debris that surrounded the ships tattered hulk.

Archer felt a surge of both anger and regret flow up from his stomach to his throat, it was like a ravaged creature trying to escape from a deep dark pit within him. It was clawing and scratching its way up his insides. He looked down to the grav-plating and breathed out loudly as he tried to push his anger and other feelings down. "Do we have any idea what ship this was?"

Each crewman sat watching the debris in silence, they were each left with their own thoughts of what might have happened. T'pols calm voice cut through the silence that had consumed the bridge."The transponder is still sending out their ID as ECS Pegasus. The ID registration numbers on their hull are a match to the ones that we have on record."

Malcolm asked from across the bridge, "Do you know who attacked this ship?"

* * *

Centurion Kiloth exhaled quietly on the bridge of the Romulan Bird of Prey Tokam. He gazed quietly and steadily at the view screen showing the image of the human vessel as it approached the burning hull of the freighter he had just destroyed. He had to admit he was surprised by how quickly a Starfleet warship responded to the distress call it gave out. It wasn't often that a Starfleet ship could arrive in time to help its own freighters but this one had been close. 

Kiloth looked across the bridge towards his ship's gunner, "status of the cloak?"

The ships gunner had short hair cut in a straight line across his forehead and a small build, replied quickly to his question, "it reads as fully operational. Our last salvo with the disrupters did not affect the power supply to the cloaking device."

Kiloth smiled at hearing the good news, the ship was in no danger of being found by the pathetic human sensors. They had fired one last shot with their disrupters just before cloaking and Kiloths concern was with the power distribution from the weapons to the cloak. The power had to go to one or the other, not both. But the ships reactor had somehow managed to keep up and kept the Tokam from being spotted by the human ship. The human sensors were not up to the level the Romulan Star Empires was, to ever have a chance of finding the small weakness in their cloaking devices. Their sensors were not advanced enough yet to spot the small problems with the advanced devices.

"Tell the Komack and Yomath to prepare to decloak and prepare for battle. We must destroy this human vessel; it is one of their warships. If we destroy this ship then we shall all be given a commendation for our bravery," ordered Kiloth to the COM officer on the bridge.

"Sir, may I remind you. That is a Starfleet cruiser, its weapons and armor are superior to ours. We may not be able to win this battle," said the Gunner in a quiet voice to Kiloth.

Kiloth looked over at the younger Lieutenant, "they may be able to beat one, maybe two ships in a dead on fight. But with three Birds of Prey catching them by surprise. Our victory is assured."

* * *

Malcolm quickly scanned the area around the freighter for the second time, he detected nothing. He quickly switched to the long-range sensors and scanned the area around the ship. There was nothing on long range sensors, just a few stray comets and asteroids. He frowned, as there was no sign of Romulan ships. 

He looked up at the Commander and gave a confused look, "I'm not detecting any Romulan ships. Not on short or long range sensors."

"The sensors would not lie lieutenant. They clearly read that a Romulan disrupter did this damage to the freighter," replied T'pol.

"Is there a chance there cloaked, like back in the minefield seven years ago? They haven't used that technology much in this war, but maybe they needed it for this for some reason," said Archer getting to his feet and looking over at T'pol.

"Its possible that the technology is in short supply, and they cannot give all there ships that kind of device," replied T'pol. "But why would they need that kind of technology for a simple mission to disrupt our supplies. Its illogical, the chances of there being a Starfleet ship out here are very slim."

"Well they might have needed it for something else, but that doesn't matter right now. Malcolm," said Archer turning to him. "Charge the phase cannons and loaded the torpedo tubes."

"Aye," he replied as he punched buttons all over his console. They gave a slight beep with each one that he pressed, he watched his monitor as it displayed the information. The ships cannons and torpedoes were now ready for combat.

Malcolm double-checked the alignment of the targeting sensors while keeping an eye on the short-range sensor scans. He looked from one screen to the other; the sensors were in perfect alignment. They could shoot an apple off the captain's head if they needed to. Malcolm made sure the hull plating was polarized and the crew in the armory could load the torpedo launchers as fast as possible.

He looked back from the operationscreento the short-range sensors. Two medium sized contacts appeared on his sensors, "Sir. Two ships decloaking-."

The first of the two Birds of Prey decloaked and came in a diagonal motion firing its forward disrupter cannons. Green sparking energy smashed into the hull of the Enterprise sending energy sparking and crackling across the polarized hull plating. The blasts smashed into the top half of the saucer with a rumple. The second Bird of Prey decloaked to the rear of Enterprise and fired several disrupter blasts at its starboard nacelle. The disrupters slammed into the hull and sparked off energy causing the ship to rotate slowly with the inertia from the blasts. The Bird of Prey moved forward and sped over the nacelle it had fired on, it passed over the saucer shaped primary hull of the ship and fired its rear disrupter. The green lasers hit the solid gray hull with a loud _whump_ and sent out ripples of polarizing energy out from the hits.

The bridge rocked violently as the first hits smashed into the polarized hull, the violent shake caused Archer to stumble slightly. He held his balance, but Ensign Sato wasn't as lucky and she fell to deck plates with a quiet _clang_. She cursed and quickly got back to her feet and moved to her station.

Archer sat down in his chair as the second blasts rang out through the bridge. The ship lurched forward as the Starboard nacelle took its hits. A console exploded upward in a spiral of sparks and smoke. T'pol was thrown forward and she hit her face against her console. She quickly raised her head again after the shaking stopped and green blood was oozing down her right cheek bonethat had a gash that ran several inches in length. Archer and Malcolm held on as the ship continued to shake, the image on the view screen began to slowly move to the right of the damaged ship.

The ship continued to rotate in a slow spin from the blasts to its engine as theBirdof Preypassed several hundred meters over the bridge. Its rear cannon fired causing the ship to lurch downward suddenly causing Malcolm to feel almost sick to his stomach from the dropping feeling. He looked and saw that Mayweather had been knocked from his chair but he was quickly getting back into his station's chair.

"Evasive maneuvers," called Archer as another console sparked.

Travis began to push controls forward and the ship began to move forward at maximum impulse speed. The ensign grabbed the control stick and began to do maneuvers with it. Malcolm watched his own monitors as his comrade in arms did his own duty. Malcolm watched the two Birds of Prey, that were now circling around for another firing solution.

Malcolm felt his pulse quicken and his heart thunder in his ears as he quickly punched buttons causing the targeting systems to light up and come to life. They quickly tracked both of the targets and one of the targets lit up with a crosshair. He watched it line up with what the computer deemed a critical system. Malcolm pressed the button to fire and theforward phase cannons ripped to life sending red crackling energy towards the target.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three**_

_**January 26th, 2159**_

The Romulan Bird of Prey attempted to evade the blast but it was too late and the phase cannon shot smashed into the shields of the small Romulan warship. The shields flickered green as the red energy smashed into it; it created what looked like a large bubble around the ship as the energy clashed together. The Romulan ship maintained its pursuit course after the Enterprise despite being hit by a full phase cannon shot.

"Hit it again," ordered Captain Archer over the sound of the ship taking another disrupter hit from the two Birds of Prey who were chasing them.

Malcolm quickly hit the fire button again and the phase cannon roared to life sending the super heated red energy laser roaring towards its target. The phased energy hit the shields again and they flickered once again. The shields gave out under the steady stream of energy and the weapon broke through the forward shields and smashed into the Bird of Preys port nacelle. The thick metal plating of the plasma filled engine peeled apart under the extreme heat and intensity of the phase cannon shot and fire spewed from the impact hole. The nacelle exploded a part sending blue plasma and metal spiraling off in all directions from the blast. The ship lurched hard to the right and it moved off from the fight allowing the Bird of Prey behind it to pass by.

Malcolm quickly switched over to photonic torpedoes and activated the weapons guidance systems. He targeted the next ship as fast as the computer would go, it wasn't fast enough to stop the Romulan ship from firing and hitting the starboard nacelle again. Malcolm hit the fire button, he cursed his rookie trigger finger and watched the screen as it showed the two torpedoes he had fired. The first one missed the target completely while the second veered towards the target and hit the shields with a large explosion.

Archer got to his feet and moved forward to Mayweather's station, "can you bring us about fast enough that he won't be able to get away from our forward launchers?"

Travis looked from his monitors and console to the captain, then back at his consoles. "I think so sir. I'll do my best," he said unsure.

Archer moved back to his chair and looked over at Malcolm, "prepare the forward tubes and cannons. Fire them all on my order."

Travis moved the ship quickly with the impulse engines and thrusters and he began to move the ship in a large arc. He was quickly compensating, trying to get Enterprise to turn as fast as she could towards the enemy ship.

T'pols voice broke through the tension building in the air, "Another ship decloaking!"

Malcolm looked up from his console and towards the view screen as they continued their arc. Ahead of them on their turning angle a ship shimmered into view and fired its disrupters. The green energy flew towards their ship at its maximum velocity and smashed into the hull plating of Enterprise sending several consoles sparking up and smoke to billow out of the short circuited consoles. The two ships continued to travel towards each other at maximum speed. The two ships were on the same turning arc and wouldn't break their own turn. They were playing a dangerous game of chicken.

"Travis," called Archer. Travis pushed the stick as far forward as he could, causing the ships inertial dampeners to strain to maximum. Enterprises thrusters fired to maximum and the ship quickly reacted to the helmsmen's desperate attempted to avoid a collision with the enemy ship. Its bow moved downward sending the enemy ship heading for its two nacelle ends at the stern of the vessel. Enterprises impulse engines caught up with the thrusters just in time to bring the ship forward and prevent the Romulan Bird of Prey from decapitating their warp engines.

The two ships missed each other by ten meters, which for two ships of their size was a just a hair. The Bird of Prey banked hard around and attempted to catch up with Enterprise as it continued downward.

Travis pulled the stick up and gave a loud _whew_ as he checked to see that all of the ship was still where he had left it. He began pulling the ship up as the two Birds of Prey continued their pursuit of Enterprise. Disrupter shots smashed into the dorsal section of the hull sending the ship into several shaking convulsions. The ship steadied after a few seconds of straight shaking and Travis attempted to bring the ship upward into a lateral motion. The ship began to climb like a straight tree as the two Birds of Prey moved to cut it off at a 45-degree angle.

Disrupters smashed into the top half of the ship again causing an ensign's console at the back of the bridge to spark and send her flying backward. She gave a scream of pain as she smashed into the other side of the small rectangular area and broke several bones in her body. The ship stopped shaking again as the Birds of Prey recharged their disrupters and prepared for another shot.

Malcolm looked over at Travis wondering what he would do to get them out of this predicament. He couldn't get a shot at them when they were at the angle they were at. They were too far upward of the ship and the cannons on the bottom of the Enterprise couldn't fire through their own hull.

Travis pulled the stick back and to the left, causing the ship to move in a backward roll as well as spinning on its axis. The ships bottom half now moved to face the two enemy ships allowing Malcolm to get a shot at the enemy ships. The bottom of the ship rotated into a view and it took one point three five seconds for the targeting system to lock onto the leading Bird of Prey. Malcolm fired and the cannons roared to life again.

The phased energy smashed across the top of the enemy shields as they climbed up to meet them. The shields buckled under the blast of the cannons and Malcolm quickly fired another shot from the cannons. The phase cannons blasted red energy towards the Romulan warship again; it sped towards the target as two long lines of red light. They smashed into the hull of the Bird of Prey on both sides of the command area and sent out massive explosions that ripped through several decks on both sides of the ship's hull.

* * *

Kiloth smashed to the deck plates and felt his head crack open with a surge of pain; he couldn't control himself from yelling in agony. His vision went blurry and he felt dizzy, he rolled over to face the ceiling of the bridge only to see that the force of the blasts had blown out the lights of the bridge. He slowly got to his feet and looked around what remained of his ship's bridge.

Several consoles had exploded outward and killed several of his crewmembers. The gunner who he had given the order to fire a moment previously was splayed open on the deck plates at his feet. His console had exploded and a large piece of metal the size of Kiloths arm was now sliced deep into his chest. Blood and bone had fallen out of the wound and onto the floor as the man had thrashed and cried out for help. Kiloth cringed as he looked at the mutilated green blood stained corpse of the ship's gunner.

The smell of blood, charred flesh, and sulfur now filled the bridge. Kiloth felt a wave of nausea comes over him as he stood looking at the corpses of what used to be his bridge crew. One of the bodies slowly got to its feet again and Kiloth got a feeling of relief from the knowledge that not all of them had died.

The officer who stood was the one who had manned the COM station. His face was burned slightly and green blood oozed down from his wound. The blood was dripping down from his wounds and was pooling on his gray uniform; it was creating a large stain down the front of his uniform. Kiloth looked at the man and patted him on the shoulder, "man the gunner station. I will man the helm."

The new gunner nodded and quickly moved over to where the old gunner's blood was spattered over his own console. The COM officer quickly pressed several buttons that would allow the ship to fire its disrupters again.

Kiloth moved over and pushed the corpse of the helmsman out of the helm chair. He used his sleeve to wipe the green blood off the console monitors. He then began trying to move the ship so that it could fire again.

* * *

Malcolm looked at the sensor readings of the enemy ship they had just hit with their phase cannons. Its hull was damaged badly and power was failing on several decks, it looked like atmosphere was venting from several sections of the ship causing what looked like little plumes of white smoke to vent out. The ship continued to hold its course while the second ship moved its course so that it could continue to fire on Enterprise.

Enterprise rocked as disrupters raked across the bottom of the hull and caused the hull plating to flare. Malcolm held on to his console as the ship rocked again, he looked at his monitor then frowned as he reported, "hull plating down to twelve percent. We can't take much more of this."

Enterprise passed over the Bird of Prey and continued forward allowing the Bird of Prey to attempt to turn up in behind it. Travis quickly hit several thrusters and the ship began to evade upward again. It moved in a small arc around towards the Bird of Prey who was turning as well to get a fire solution on Enterprise. The two large ships were in game of chicken just like it had been a few minutes ago with the other ship.

"This is it Malcolm," said Archer standing as Enterprise continued to turn towards the enemy ship. The Romulan vessel continued to turn until it faced Enterprise and its forward disrupters glowed to life sending several blasts of energy flying towards the human ship. Two of the four lasers hit the hull of Enterprise and caused it to shake violently. The other two shots missed and sped off towards nothing.

Malcolm readied himself as he watched the ship come around towards them, it would only be a few more seconds before the ship would enter the bow arc. The bow arc was which the torpedoes and cannons could both fire, and it was fairly large. But it was rather small considering how much area of Enterprise that wasn't covered by any weapons at all. The Bird of Prey moved into the arc and Malcolm got ready to fire.

Archer spoke up with a commanding loud voice, "Fire!"

The forward phase cannons fired sending out cascading red energy followed by the steady _thump_ of the torpedoes being fired. The phase cannon shots hit the shields first causing the shields to flicker and buckle under the two blasts of pure energy. The two torpedoes then smashed through the weak shields and collided with the hull causing a massive blast to ring out from where they hit. A second after the bombs had hit the entire ship turned into a massive fireball, the charred and melted hull of what used to be a Romulan warship spiraled out of control and exploded into several large jagged chunks.

Malcolm let out a breath of relief as he watched the sensor telemetry of the enemy ship exploding. He looked around the bridge and saw the same look on everyone else's faces. He looked towards Archer who smiled at him; he gave the captain a nod back. They had just destroyed a Romulan Bird of Prey and disabled two others. That was pretty good for three to one odds of survival.

Archer looked over at T'pol, "what's the status of those other two Birds of Prey?"

She tapped several buttons on her console and looked at the sensor readings closely before answering her captain. "One has a badly damaged nacelle and is limping from the area. The others power grid is severely damaged but it appears to be trying to come around for another attack."


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter Four**_

_**January 26th, 2159**_

"They can't possibly still think they can fight us," said Malcolm in annoyed voice across the bridge to T'pol. She raised her right eyebrow and looked back down at her console.

"It doesn't matter what they're doing," said Archer turning away from T'pol and looking at Hoshi. "Hail them." Hoshi pressed a few buttons on her console and nodded in reply to Archer. Archer took in a deep breath and spoke in an authoritative voice, "this is the Earth ship Enterprise," he said turning and looking at the view screen image of the badly damaged Bird of Prey. "We demand your immediate unconditional surrender; you will be treated fairly if you choose to give up this confrontation. If you do not reply, we will take this as a sign of aggression and continue hostilities."

Malcolm looked over at Archer who gave him a look from the corner of his eye. Malcolm knew what this meant; he quickly targeted the primary reactor of the Bird of Prey with their phase cannons. The bridge sat in silence as they waited for the enemy ship to respond. 

* * *

Kiloth closed his left eye as his own blood from the wound dripped and into his vision. He resisted the urge to bring his hands up to his wounds; he didn't need the distraction of having to deal with the bleeding. Kiloth looked over at the younger officer as he attempted to get the weapons back online.

The console next to the one Kiloth was manning was the navigation station. The entire console was torn open and a large fire was spewing out of the tattered insides. He looked over slightly and saw the ripped and charred hand of the man who had been previously manning the station. Its finger was still on the button to plot an evasive course away from the shots the human ship had taken at them. 

Kiloth felt a wave of nausea, either from the blood loss or the sight of the mutilated limp. He reached over quickly and swatted the hand off its place; it fell to the floor with a quiet splat. Kiloth felt a bit relieved not having to look at the blood-dripping organ.

The ship's speakers buzzed to life and the sound of crackling static played through the COM speakers on the bridge. "This is the Earth ship Enterprise," Kiloth felt a slight twitch in his right eye. This was the Enterprise, the ship that had been such a problem for the high command for so long. They had discovered a plot that would start a war between two of the major powers in the region as well as had stopped the drone ships when the high command had tried to start a war four years ago. "We demand your immediate unconditional surrender; you will be treated fairly if you choose to give up this confrontation. If you do not reply, we will take this as a sign of aggression and continue hostilities," said a man in a strong voice that could be heard even through the thick static of the COM system.

"Sir," said the lieutenant looking over at him with his green blood smeared face. "There is no chance of us beating a fully armed and ready Starfleet cruiser with our ship in this state. The Tokam is far to badly damaged, we can't take on the Enterprise with our ship falling apart."

Kiloth looked over at the lieutenant with a glare, "call the Yomath and order them to return to the battle and attack the human ship despite their battle damage."

The lieutenant recoiled back for a second then continued his protest, "sir the Yomath is badly damaged and would not last a second in combat. We've already lost the Komack, why do we need to lose two more ships and there crews?"

"Lieutenant, if you do not follow my orders then you are a traitor and I will shoot you on the spot," snapped the Centurion unholstering his disrupter and pointing it at the other officer's face.

The lieutenant looked from Kiloth to the bodies on the floor, and then he looked to the blood splatters on the walls and consoles of the bridge. He looked at the debris and consoles that had blown apart; he then gazed at the few fires that were still burning around the bridge. He turned in his chair and began to punch buttons on his console. He spoke without stopping what he was doing, "Would you like to speak to the enemy commander?"

"Open the channel," said Kiloth holstering his disrupter and shaking his head. The channel gave a quiet squeak and the static filled the smoke thick air. "This is Centurion Kiloth of the Romulan warship Tokam. We will deny your request for surrender," he said with an arrogant sounding voice.

"Your ship is badly damaged and falling apart around you. Give up this fight before you lose your life for an unjust cause," replied the same man who had given the surrender request.

Kiloth replied quickly to the human commander, "if we die, we die for the good of the Empire. Long live the Romulan Star Empire!"

The lieutenant cut the channel off and looked over at Kiloth, "our disrupters will only fire at sixty percent efficiency. It will not be as effective as previously."

Kiloth breathed out slowly and punched in the keys that would bring the Tokam in a 45-degree angle dive towards the center of the saucer shaped hull of the human ship. He looked over at the Lieutenant; "we just need them to cut through their armor."

* * *

"Sir, if they hit us again. Our hull plating may not stand up to their weapons. Our hull plating is down to seven percent; we can't take more then one hit before our hull plating is gone in its entirety. After that, its just the plating itself between the compartments and the enemy fire," said Malcolm in a disappointed tone to Archer.

"The other vessel that was retreating from the area has altered its course and is now moving to intercept us," reported T'pol.

Archer took in this information as he continued to stand next to Travis's station. Malcolm spoke in a calm voice even though his adrenaline was pumping viciously through his blood stream, "we may have no other choice but to destroy these two ships sir."

Archer looked over at Malcolm as he asked, "Is there any way we could disable them further without destroying them?"

Malcolm scanned the enemy ships closely as they slowly approached Enterprise with their weapons fully charged. He examined the data closely before replying to his captain, "I don't think we could hit them anywhere without causing massive structural damage. Both ships hull integrity is severely compromised, and I don't think they would survive another hit, sir."

"They'll be in firing range in ten seconds Captain," said T'pol.

Archer stood for a moment thinking of someway to try to stop this from having any more lives lost. His expression changed from thoughtful to serious; it reminded Malcolm of the look he had had while they were hunting down the Xindi after they attacked Earth. Archer had changed in those months from a calm leader to a man who had the willingness to do whatever it took to accomplish his mission. It had scared many of his officers, including Malcolm.

"Target those ships at your discretion, don't let them get a chance to hit us again," he said to Malcolm and Travis. 

Malcolm targeted the ship that had replied to their surrender request first, he targeted the primary reactor in the very center of the warship. Even if he missed the blasts would still do a large amount of structural damage to the ship. He uploaded his targeting requirements to Travis's console and the ensign moved to get the ship in a position to fire on the incoming ships. 

The ship climbed and moved forward allowing the two forward phase cannons to bare on the Romulan Bird of prey as it approached them. Its normally dark green hull was charred black and several sections leaked atmosphere in clouds of white smoke. The ship had the two blast marks of where Malcolm had hit it the first time and disabled the ship for the moment. The holes from the blasts ran deep into the hull on both sides of the vessel; Malcolm doubted there was any way off of the bridge now.

Malcolm watched the enemy ship as it entered firing range and began to target Enterprise. He checked his lock and tapped the fire button on his console.

* * *

Kiloth smiled as he approached the enemy ship at one quarter impulse power. It was the fastest speed the ship could maintain without falling apart. He looked over at the lieutenant who was shaking his head and targeting the human ship. The lieutenant locked onto the primary hull and fired on the human ship.

The Tokam shook violently and Kiloth was thrown from his seat as several of the various surviving consoles from the first attack exploded upward in a display of sparks and black charred metal. Kiloth hit the deck plates and felt his shoulder thunder in pain as the ship continued to shake uncontrollably. Kiloth rolled onto his back and looked over at the lieutenant who was still sitting at his station.

The lieutenant's console exploded upward in a blast of sparks and metal. The young man cried out in pain as he took the shrapnel in the face, it tore through his face and cut out several of his facial muscles. The muscles controlling his jaw sliced apart like an elastic band cut with scissors under the debris. He fell back from his chair and landed on the floor grabbing his face. Thick green blood oozed between his fingers as he covered his wounded face.

Kiloth attempted to get to his feet but the rumbling of the deck plates was too fierce. The ship continued to rumble apart as Kiloth rolled onto his side and attempted to get up again. He was still trying to get up when fire ripped through the floor and engulfed everything that was in the bridge. The corpses, the consoles, and the debris all ignited into a flurry of deathly fire.

* * *

The ship took the two-phase cannon hits directly beneath the command deck and the ship quickly spiraled out of control leaking fire and blue plasma. The ship trailed the sparks and fire as it continued to spin and list heavily to starboard. It exploded in a fiery explosion that sent debris and metal flying out in random directions away from the blast. 

Malcolm looked over at Archer who watched the ship continue to explode, his face was sad but at the same time not showing anything at all. Malcolm felt the ship jerk violently as the disrupters the Bird of Prey had fired before it got destroyed hit the Enterprise. The floor shook and the bridge officers grabbed hold of something to keep themselves from falling under the impact of the weapons. 

Malcolms monitors lit to life and he quickly punched buttons to assess the damage done to the ship. He looked from a monitor on his console to one behind him on the wall as he took in the information. He finished checking the information that scrolled across and he reported, "direct hit. Hull plating is gone and we have a small hull breach on D deck. The emergency bulkheads are sealing automatically."

"Travis, bring us around so our torpedoes can get a lock on that other Bird of Prey," ordered Archer.

The young ensign replied with a quick "yes, sir" and began to bring the ship around in a small arc towards the incoming Romulan warship. The ship came around and now faced the badly damaged green vessel. Its port nacelle trailed blue and green warp plasma as well as hot red sparks from the damage that had been done to the ship's engines. The stump of a pylon was torn and jagged from the where the blast had been, the ship was obviously badly damaged.

"Malcolm," said Archer as he sat back down in his command chair. "Target that ship with everything you've got."

Malcolm nodded to the order and targeted the ship with both phase cannons and torpedoes. He locked onto the central reactor just like last time and waited for the order to fire. The ship closed in on them, and Archer gave a firm, "Fire," order.

The ship's cannons and torpedoes fired in a blaze of energy and explosives that traveled across the massive void of space and towards the enemy ship. The cannon shots hit across the hull ripping open compartments and destroying key systems. The torpedoes slammed into the hull and dug into the ship before exploding inside of the thick armor of the ship. The ships sides cracked open spewing sparks and fire as it now lost control of its course and spun downward. The ship continued to fall as it exploded in a massive blast of light.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Five**_

_**January 26th, 2159**_

The sounds of the grav plating clanking underneath his boots gave Archer a slight feeling of regret for what had happened during the battle. He wished he could have ended the battle without having to destroy the three ships. But he couldn't have helped the fact that they didn't give up, even when they had surely lost the battle. He shook his head slightly at how this war was taking its toll on him, to many times he had ordered peoples deaths in the past nine years. But he had never ordered as much as during these three years.

Archer walked down the corridor on E deck towards sickbay; he was going to hear the bad news. Archer silently wished that no one had been injured in this battle, but he knew that wasn't going to be so. Nine years of fighting in this ship had taught him that there was usually one person who had been caught off guard.

Jon walked towards the gray and white windowed doors of sickbay; he looked at the emblem on the door. He had seen that emblem many times over the years, yet he always looked at it closely when he entered sickbay. He reached over and tapped the open button on the door and the large doors slid open.

He walked inside of sickbay and Phlox looked up at him with smile on his face. Phlox strode over to Archer as he walked into sickbay; "I take it the battle went well with the Romulans."

"Not as well as I had hoped," replied Archer shaking his head lightly. Archer looked from the Denobulan to the bio beds in the room. Three of them were filled with injured crewmembers.

Phlox must have noticed his gaze and knew what he was thinking. He walked over to the first bed and Archer followed. "Crewmen Parrez here sustained an injury when those Birds of Prey first hit us out of no where. He has a fractured arm and a few bruises. He should be back on his feet and ready for duty by tomorrow."

The young crewman was lying flat on the bed and looking off towards the ceiling with a stare. His hair was messed up and looked like it had a case of bed head. He must have been in his bed when the tactical alert came over the ship wide speakers. Archer frowned and looked over at him, "why is-"

The doctor smiled before speaking, "I gave him a fair dose of painkiller, this was his first broken bone and he was less then pleased with the pain."

Phlox walked from the crewman to the next bio bed and Archer followed the doctor. He walked up on the other side of the bio bed and looked down at a badly burned man. His face was burned red and looked cracked from the searing heat he had suffered. What looked like it used to be blond hair was burnt and scorched from whatever had caused all this damage.

"Lieutenant Riley was hit by the plasma from a damaged conduit in engineering. His face and some parts of his upper body were badly burned from the blast and I'm trying to treat him, but its not having the full effect that it should. There appears to be something this man has that isn't letting the treatment work to its full extent," he said looking up from the wounded man lying in unconscious pain. "I had to sedate him for the pain. It was too much for anyone to handle; these kinds of burns are the most painful," he said with an almost pitying look. He looked back down at the burned charred mans face. "When they brought him, they told me, that he had continued to man his station in engineering even after he had been burned. He had done that for most of the battle, but eventually he had collapsed and he was brought here."

Archer looked up in shock, how could this man have done that with such horrifically painful wounds. He was definitely the kind of man who would make a good officer one-day. "How long till he's out of here?"

"Its hard to say," said Phlox with a shrug. "The treatment is working. But just at a slower pace then usual. So it could be anywhere within a weak, possibly two."

"Alright, I want to talk to this lieutenant when he's fully recovered," said Archer looking at Phlox who gave him a nod in reply. They both walked over to the third bio bed and a young ensign lay on the bed. Her uniform was tattered and ripped on her right shoulder, and the faint spots of blood spatter could be seen on her uniform. Blood was seen where her uniform was ripped open; beneath the layer of blood, torn flesh was visible.

"Ensign Hayworth, a portion of the bulkhead on D deck broke apart and collapsed. She was hit by a support beam that fell when it collapsed, it caused damaged to her upper shoulder. Its an easily treatable wound, she should be able to report to duty sometime tomorrow," said Phlox.

* * *

Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III looked at the monitor and muttered a curse under his breath. The warp engines had taken a pounding under that second Bird of Preys disrupters. The nacelles had taken at least five direct hits, the hull plating had protected them, but it wasn't enough to not cause any damage to the complicated equipment in them. This was going to be bad for Enterprise; the ship was going to lose some of its speed.

"Commander, what is the status of the warp engines?"

Trip turned towards the familiar voice, he looked into T'pols calm eyes as he spoke to her. "Those Romulans sure hit us good, they damaged the coils assembly. It isn't that big of a problem, but it's enough of one to slow us down for the moment. I could fix it in under two hours if we didn't put the warp engines to use in that time."

"We have to leave this area, if there was anymore Romulan ships nearby they might come to the aid of the Romulans we destroyed," she said in a matter of fact tone looking up at the warp reactor to their left.

Trip sighed loudly and looked around the engine room; "I should be able to have it up and running in five hours. Until then, I can give you warp two at the most."

"Warp two isn't going to get us very far," she said looking at the monitor. "If they catch us, we'll more then likely be facing superior numbers again."

"It's the best I can do, T'pol," he said looking into her eyes. Trip's gaze slowly lowered to the gash on her right cheek, it was still fresh but looked to be healing slowly. He quietly asked, "Are you alright?"

She reached up and touched her cheek absent-mindedly; her fingers traced the outline of the bruise and exposed green flesh. "Phlox says it will heal nicely, he says there probably won't even be a scar." She said crossing her arms over her chest and looking up at him.

Trip smiled, "that's good. Will I see you later?"

Her lips moved slightly and Trip could tell she was restraining a smile, "I'll see you in the mess hall for dinner," she said turning quickly and walking out of engineering.

* * *

Ensign Travis Mayweather punched buttons across his console trying to steer _Enterprise_ clear of the debris spiraling and spinning wildly through the vacuum of space. It was proving difficult since the three ships had literally broken a part and scattered debris in wild patterns all over the area around the freighter.

Travis felt a slight twinge of guilt at seeing the freighters battered and torn hull, it was a bone chilling sight. His family was still on board the Horizon and in recent years his thoughts turned to them every time they heard a distress call. The Romulans had been attacking human ships without mercy and it was one of his largest fears to hear the news they had been killed because of this war.

He felt sad as he thought of all the friends he had lost, on those other freighters in this short time. He had lost ten friends to these attacks. Travis thought about the friends he had lost in Starfleet as well. Many ships had been lost since this war began; he had lost two more friends on different Starfleet vessels.

Lieutenant Reed's voice broke through his thoughts. "Ensign, does the area still look clear out there?"

"Depends what you mean by being clear sir, those ships were made up of a lot of parts and they're scattered everywhere. But there appears to be no Romulan ships in the area."

Travis scanned the area a second time and was fairly certain they were alone, hopefully no more Romulan ships would be cloaked in the area. That cloaking technology they had was amazing, it allowed the Romulans to move entire fleets without anyone actually seeing them. Travis felt a little uneasy as he looked out at the thousands of pieces of Human and Romulan debris flying around.

"Archer to the bridge," said the internal COM loudly through the quiet bridge.

"Bridge here," replied Reed to the captain.

"Have we finished scanning the freighter for any survivors?"

Reed looked over at the science station being manned by an ensign, she was young but her age was actually shown by the look in her eyes. She had obviously seen much in these years of war, just like everyone else. "I've directly scanned all of the sections onboard that freighter, theirs nothing alive."

Travis looked back at Reed as he spoke; "we've scanned the freighters compartments directly captain, theirs no signs that anyone survived the attack. We got here too late sir."

* * *

Captain Archer stood in the turbo lift on his way to engineering; his face was grim as he stood listening to Reed. More lives lost, he thought to himself. He shook his head slightly, this war was beginning to take its toll on him and he could feel it. He didn't know how much longer he could take all this killing, he could feel himself becoming the way he was five years ago. He felt similar to this while they were tracking down the Xindi after they attacked Earth. Now it was five years later and he was beginning to feel the same.

Though the situations were similar in the facts that Earth was attacked, the Xindi killing more people then the Romulans. But still, he knew he didn't like going to this state of mind. He knew that he was capable of doing anything when he was like this, he shuddered at his thoughts of torturing those innocent people in the Expanse.

This mission wasn't going to be much different; Earth was becoming no better then the Xindi for what they did to Earth. Archer wondered if he could actually do this to their enemy. They were the enemy after all, but they were still sentient life forms. Archer shook off his thoughts, they were at war and it was his duty to protect Earth and its colonies from their enemy no matter what.

Reeds voice echoed through the quiet lift, "is that all captain?"

"No lieutenant, resume our course for cold station twelve."


End file.
